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POETRY AS OPIUM FOR PEOPLE

Young activists of the Radical Party demand "freedom and justice" for poetess Alina Vitukhnovskaja, staying under General Procuratura's gates. Mrs. Vitukhnovskaja accused in spreading drugs is now in a prison cell. Defendant doesn't avow her guilt. The democratic public - writers, politicians and journalists - is also in solidarity with her. The version of defence: KGB-men simply revenge for her refusal to collaborate and that's why they falsified the suit. Vitukhnovskaja's preliminary imprisonment is also very doubtful: she didn't attempt to escape.

However, unlike the same Russian PEN Center, young Radicals are convinced: Alina became a victim of the "irrational" and "inhuman" laws which ban the drugs. Radical Party is for their legalizing. Because it is convinced: total prohibition and repressions are only good for narcomafia. Would this point of view on the problem be helpful for the poetess in trouble? It's hard to believe... Probably, the next place for Radical demonstration of protest would be doors of the State Duma, whose members are already preparing a new "repressive" law on drugs.

Aleksandr MITROFANOV

Photo by Andrej Zhabin